Director-General George Entwistle told MPs that the corporation was looking at between five and 10 serious allegations over the whole period that Jimmy Savile is said to have preyed on youngsters.

At a House of Commons select committee, Mr Entwistle confirmed that current BBC employees were included in those claims.

But, Mr Entwistle was unable to say how many of those accusations referred to present staff.

Tory MP Damian Collins described Mr Entwistle's lack of knowledge in this respect as "unacceptable".

The Director-General suggested that sexual harassment could have been widespread within the BBC in the past, with a culture of abuse likely to have existed at the time Savile was one of its main stars.

"I'm convinced it must have been a problem of culture at the BBC," he said.

"Jimmy Savile could not have done what he did without a broader cultural problem."

And Mr Entwistle said that such an environment could have been allowed to flourish because he didn't think "there was anything they [victims] could do" about sex abuse claims.

Yet the Director-General said he didn't yet have a good enough picture of events to describe abuse as "endemic".

Mr Entwistle expressed his regret that Savile's death meant that to some extent "he can be said to have got away with it."